Have you ever stood in front of your closet and just felt fat?  Me too. I am learning five ways that I can fight the feeling and make my closet -- and my body -- my friend. One of the most everyday things in my life can be the very thing that causes me the most frustration—shopping for clothes or even selecting them out of my closet! Finding...

Have you ever felt like losing five pounds? I have . . . and it turned out to be the beginning of a 10 year diet which nearly killed me. Popularity became important to me at a very young age. As a child, I had lots of friends and I felt good about myself. I was very close to my family. Then, when I was 11 years old, my peaceful world became confused...

All I ever wanted was to be in magazines, earn lots of money and travel all over the world. The struggle to make ends meet was finally over. The world was my new playground - from Egypt to South Africa, Japan to Sweden, Switzerland to the Canary Islands - I was living my dream. I could wine and dine in Paris, my new home, and toast fame and fortune. It...

At the age of 17, I won a national modeling competition in England to be a cover girl for Just Seventeen Magazine. Two years later, after I finished studying art and fashion design, I began my full-time modeling career in Milan, Italy. I loved the traveling and excitement of doing jobs with such magazines as Harper's Bazaar, Donna and Amica. But...

"I learned the truth at 17, that love was meant for beauty queens…" played from our car radio in 1975. As a scrawny 12-year-old, I believed that if I was beautiful, my life would be perfect. Fast forward four years - at 16, I was chosen from more than 200 girls to go to Paris and become a fashion model. My agent told me, "Your rail-thin body,...

Though it seemed unlikely, my life’s dream was to be a model. In high school, a judge for the school fashion show thought I had the exotic look of a fashion model. That judge began helping me get pictures together, and a photographer took me under her belt, teaching me what to watch out for in the modeling business. I was a more quiet and introspective...

I'm doing something I thought I'd never do again - working as a full-time model in New York, this time in the plus-size market. For six years, I worked full-time as a straight-size model. But I got out of the business after battling bulimia and coming to the conclusion that it wasn't right for me to continue. Bulimia had a hold on my life, and...